Alpha Universe: Steer By The Compass Of Your Soul
by VibeQuake
Summary: "Your purpose is not to save your soul, but to become more enlightened to the power and beauty of who you are." Pippa and Anton need this advice. Constantly ignored or not taken seriously, they are unaware that the problem lies within others, not themselves, until an emergency leaves them the only people who can beat Rodney when he captures all of OWCA's agents. Three-shot.
1. Chapter 1

**Pippa's POV**

It's a training day for me today. For all the BTs. We are going to have an assessment with Jayne Walker in the BT gym, where we have to complete an obstacle course using all the techniques that we've learned so far in our Basic Training. I have to say…I'm really nervous. I haven't got much in the way of constructive feedback from Jayne in two months, not to mention the fact that whenever we give each other feedback, nobody volunteers to tell me anything about what I did right and what I did wrong. I'm not sure why.

Today, we go into the BT gym, where an elaborate obstacle course has been set up. It looks hard, especially the section that has monkey bars hanging from the ceiling with no safety net beneath. If we fall…ouch.

I'm up last, apparently. I get to watch everyone else attempt the obstacle course and mainly fail, though only thirty percent (or so) of them fall off the monkey bars, and Apollo is only called up about seven times. Eventually, my sister Quinn is stationed inside the gym, in case of any more injuries.

Finally, it's my turn. Jayne sighs as I walk up to the starting line, and holds up the stopwatch. "Under three minutes to pass," she said.

"But…it was four minutes for the others," I say quietly.

"Three minutes," Jayne repeats, giving me a stern look.

I nod hurriedly. "Okay. Three minutes."

I prepare myself. Across the room, I see both Quinn and my twin brother standing by the door, watching. Anton gives me an encouraging smile and a thumbs up. I give him a terrified look back.

Jayne blows the whistle, and I am off.

 **Anton's POV**

I watch my twin sister begin the obstacle course. The first thing is a large rope ladder, which she scales with ease. Pip's always been good at climbing, so I'm not worried about those aspects.

 _Come on, Pip,_ I think anxiously, watching Pippa slow down as she reaches the monkey bars. I want to yell something encouraging at her, but I'm scared that that will distract her.

She starts off well, but when she's about halfway across, her hand slips and she falls. I race forward to attempt to catch my twin, not even thinking that her weight combined with my haemophilia may kill me. Despite my efforts, she hits the floor hard. I reach her and make sure she's okay, which she is. She gives me a smile, before heading back to try again, but we all stop at Jayne's piercing whistle.

"Fail," she barks, marking it down on her clipboard.

"Wh-what?" Pippa gasps. "It hasn't even been half three minutes yet!"

"You fell," Jayne says. "Therefore, you fail."

"But the others fell!" whines Pippa. "And they still passed!"

"It's true," I say, stepping forwards. "Miss Walker, I saw at least three different candidates fall off the bars and be allowed to continue. Why does Pippa falling automatically grant her a fail? And why did you give her less time in which to complete the assessment?"

"Because she doesn't deserve to pass," Jayne snarls.

 **Pippa's POV**

My eyes fill with tears and there's a sharp sting in my chest as I glance round the room. All the other BTs are either glaring at me or giving me looks that say they agree with Jayne. Worse…Quinn is looking away and not saying anything to help.

 **Anton's POV**

"Why?!" I yell angrily. "Why doesn't she deserve to pass?!"

"Because she's stubborn, uncooperative, hyperactive, argumentative, and she refuses to listen to orders!"

"It's not my fault!" Pippa wails. "I have ADHD that I can't always control!"

"Try," snarls Jayne.

"You're the instructor!" I yell. "You're supposed to help people, not punish them for things they can't control!"

"You're right: I AM the instructor. She gets a fail, and that's the end of it."

"You can't do that!" I snap.

"Who exactly do you think you are?" Jayne demands. "You're just a useless kid who can't be an OWCA agent! What makes _your_ opinion valid?"

I flinch.

"Yeah!" snaps a fox BT next to Pippa. "Shut up, platypus! You don't get an opinion if you're not useful enough to be doing OWCA training like me."

I try and stop the tears, but I can't prevent a couple rolling down my cheeks.

 **Pippa's POV**

I can't help it. I punch the fox right in the jaw and run out of the room, sobbing loudly. Nobody says or does anything to stop me.

I run straight into the adult gym opposite, looking for someone I know. I see Teddy and Hazel sparring together, so I hurry towards them blindly. "Teddy!" I whine, hugging my brother around his waist.

He pushes me away. "Not now, Pippa."

"Please!" I beg, tears blinding me. "I need help!"

"I said not now!" Teddy shouts, pushing me further away.

I go towards Hazel and hug her around the waist, but she also pushes me away. "Go bother someone else," she growls.

Then Anton runs up, panting. "Please listen to her," he says, his eyes red. "We-we need someone to talk to."

"Just leave us alone, Anton," Hazel snaps. "We don't have time for this."

Anton takes my hand and pulls me away from our oldest siblings.

 **Anton's POV**

Then we see Hermes on the opposite side of the gym, levitating a heavy-looking trampoline near the ceiling with his back to us. Pippa and I run over to our brother, and I tap him on the shoulder. He whirls round, dropping the trampoline in the process. Screaming, Pippa and I dive to the side as Hermes catches the trampoline just in time.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Hermes yells at us.

Both of us are crying now. With everything that had just happened in the BT gym, neither of our hearts can handle more people yelling at us. "W-we didn't mean-," Pippa whimpers.

"Both of you always ruin everything! Just get out of here and don't come back!"

I drag Pippa to her feet, and we run.


	2. Chapter 2

**Pippa's POV**

We don't stop running until we reach the memorial in front of the OWCA building. Shaking and sobbing, we collapse on one of the benches. We clutch each other tightly and spend a few minutes—though it seems like hours—just crying together, until we can't cry anymore.

"What's wrong with us?" I choke. "Why don't they like us?"

"I don't know," Anton cries. "I-I wish they'd tell us instead of just yelling at us."

"If they told us, we'd be able to sort ourselves out and stop doing whatever it is they don't like," I sniffle. "I wish they would tell us."

I glance at the memorial in front of us. Ohio the Platypus, India the Platypus. Died saving Danville. Mayfair the Cat, Maggie the Macaw. Died saving another. Blaze the Crane, Charlie the Dog. Died fighting to save the world. And finally…

"I wonder what Pearl would say if she was here," I croak.

"If we had met her, I'm sure we would know," Anton says. "I wish we HAD met her."

Pearl the Platypus, Dad's mother, died of old age when we were still eggs. Her statue had been added to the memorial, as an example of a long-standing and very skilled OWCA agent who had dedicated her life to the organisation.

"Me too," I agree. "Maybe she'd have some advice for us."

"Would you like some advice?"

Both of us jump at the sound of the ghostly voice. "Wh-what was that?" Anton stammers.

"I was hoping you would know," I admit. "Wh-whatever it was, it scared the heck out of me."

"Me too."

A ghostly white light appears in front of us, shimmering, appearing to change form, until it turns into the shape of a platypus who is smiling kindly at us. Both of us blink.

 **Anton's POV**

"Why so shell-shocked?" the platypus asks, her ghostly voice echoing in our ears.

"Buh, bah…" is all I can manage to say. I've read at least three books on paranormal activity, and all of them have concluded that ghosts are not real.

"Who are you?" Pippa whispers, awed.

"My name is Pearl," the platypus says. "I am your grandmother."

Both of us stare at her in shock. "We were just talking about meeting you," I whisper. "How did you…?"

"I'm a ghost, silly," giggles Pearl. "I've been waiting around here for a long time. I'd have loved to meet you while I was still alive. It's a shame I didn't."

"Grandmother-," I begin.

"Oh, call me Pearl."

I hesitate. "Uh…if you don't mind, I'd prefer to call you Grandmother. It…it feels nicer."

Pippa nods, agreeing.

Pearl smiles kindly. "Call me whatever you wish."

"Grandmother…" I begin again. "Why does our family not like us?"

Pearl's face falls. "Ah."

"They ignore me," Pippa says in a small voice. "And get really annoyed by me."

"Nobody takes me seriously," I add. "What is it they don't like about us, Grandmother? Tell us so that we can change it."

Pearl looks surprised. "You wish to change yourselves?"

"Of course," I say. "There has to be some part of us that our family doesn't like, so if we can find out what that is, we can get rid of it so that they'll love us."

Pearl's ghostly eyes fill with ghostly tears. "Oh, children…"

 **Pippa's POV**

It feels weird seeing a ghost cry. It feels weird seeing ANY adult cry, but since I've never seen a ghost before, this is now the weirdest crying experience I've ever had.

"What?" I ask. "Do _you_ think we should change ourselves?"

"Of course not!" Pearl seems shocked at the very idea. "Of course not! You shouldn't have to change yourselves at all, let alone the only reason for it being that you want to be loved!"

"We do want to be loved, though," Anton sniffles. "Nobody loves us. They find us annoying and worthless. And they're right."

"They are not right!" Pearl snaps.

"They are, though," I whimper. "I'm overly hyperactive."

"Because of a condition you can't control," Pearl argues.

"And I'm useless because I can't train to be an OWCA agent," Anton adds.

"First of all, don't you dare call yourself useless," Pearl says fiercely. "Second of all, it's again because of a condition you can't control." She regards the two of us. "Kids, your purpose is not to save your soul, but to become more enlightened to the power and beauty of who you are," she says.

I blink, not understanding what that means. "…what?"

But Anton knows. "She's saying that we don't need to change who we are, we need to REALISE who we are, and make sure the world realises it too," he says.

"Who are you?" Pearl asks me. "Tell me who you are."

"I am Pippa," I say. "I am an OWCA trainee. I am stubborn, hyperactive, and…enthusiastic."

"That's it," Pearl encourages.

"I'm brave and I love learning," I continue, emboldened. "I give my all in everything I do. I care about my family so much that I was willing to change to make them love me."

 **Anton's POV**

"Good," Pearl says approvingly. She turns to me. "Now you."

"I'm Anton," I say miserably. "I'm a reject."

Pearl raises an eyebrow.

"I wasn't able to join OWCA because of this stupid condition I have. I like reading books." I stop.

"Which means…?" prompts Pearl.

"Which means I'm smart…?" I say hesitantly. When Pearl nods, I continue, "I'm smart, I'm intelligent, I'm wise. I make people laugh with my humour and the one-liners that I pick up from books. I care about my family so much that I was willing to change to make them love me," I add, with a glance at Pippa. "We don't need to change."

Pippa shakes her head, grinning. "No. We don't."

"THEY need to change." I match my twin sister's grin. "If they don't love us the way we are, then that's their problem, not ours."

"I'm glad you've learnt what you need to do now," Pearl says, smiling. "That means my work here is done."

"Thank you, Grandmother," I smile. "I love you."

"I love you," echoes Pippa.

"I love you both too." Pearl floats over to us and gives us a big hug, though she doesn't actually touch us. "Stay safe and remember: YOU don't have to change."

With that, she disappears.

 **Pippa's POV**

We look at each other, imbued with a new sense of purpose and happiness. "Let's go in there and prove that they need siblings like us," I grin.

Just then, we hear screaming and an alarm coming from the OWCA building. We quickly hide under the bench. We hear several explosions, before, just a few minutes later, everything is silent again.

"Wh-what happened?" I stammer.

"Calling all available agents!" comes Commander Carl's voice through my watch. "Rodney has captured everyone, I repeat, Rodney has everyone! If there are any agents left, we need he-."

The transmission cuts off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Anton's POV**

"We have to do something!" Pippa gasps.

My brain is already whirring, the cogs turning, formulating a plan. Rodney…captured agents…

"Yes we do," I say. "Rodney will most likely be keeping the agents in the prison block. If I can hack into the mainframe, I can probably let them out. The only problem is that'll take some time."

"I'll distract Rodney, then," offers Pippa. "He's probably hiding out in Commander Carl's office. I'll go in there and distract him to give you time to hack into OWCA's mainframe and open the cells."

"No way!" I stare at my sister in horror. "I'm not letting you face Rodney all by yourself! You haven't even been in Basic Training for three months!"

"What choice do we have?" demands Pippa. "If there's no distraction, Rodney will see you straight away and kill you before you can free the agents. It's the only way."

"I can't put you in danger!" I grab my sister's shoulders. "Pip, I know you're the older twin, but I have to look out for you!"

"You can do that by hacking as fast as you can," Pippa says. She's grinning, but I can tell she's scared. "So I don't have to face Rodney for too long. 'Kay?"

"No, not okay!" I snap, but Pippa has already pulled away from me and is now running towards HQ. She uses a random stick on the ground to pole vault up and through a window. "Pip!" I hiss, too late.

I force myself to keep calm. Where can I hack into the server? Preferably from a central computer, but the central computer is in Commander Carl's office, and that's where Rodney most likely is. Where else? There's a server room in the basement of OWCA, where the IT technicians work. It's been deserted for years, though, apart from the odd inspection. Maybe I can hack in through there.

…

 **Pippa's POV**

The building has not been put on lockdown, which worries me. Normally, if something like this happens, Commander Carl or one of the others would initiate lockdown: nobody in or out. However, it is not on lockdown today, which either means Commander Carl wasn't able to initiate it, or Rodney somehow disabled it. Speaking of which, the alarm has stopped. Rodney must have found a way to disable that too.

I head up the stairs to the top floor and stop outside Commander Carl's office. I can hear someone inside, and I know I'm right: Rodney is hiding out in there.

I burst in through the door and land in a fighting stance. Rodney, who is standing beside Commander Carl's desk, staring up at the security camera monitors, leaps a foot in the air with fright. He growls when he sees me. "I thought I got them all!" he snaps.

"Not all of us!" I chirp.

He comes at me. I dodge his first strike, but that's as lucky as I get.

…

 **Anton's POV**

I race through the halls, unstopped, and reach the server room without meeting anyone. I run towards a computer, but I misjudge the size of one of the desks and run straight into the corner of it. It hurts my abdomen really badly and, because of my haemophilia, a massive bruise is immediately on display. Clutching my abdomen in pain, I lose my balance and trip over, hitting my head hard on another desk. The pain is bad and I can feel my head growing fuzzy, but I quickly drag myself to a computer and sit down at it.

Time is running out.

…

 **Pippa's POV**

Rodney has beaten me quite badly by the time I finally succumb to the pain. He slams me to the floor, where I lie on my front, trying to find strength to get up. _Come on, Anton._

…

 **Anton's POV**

My beak spits out a constant stream of swear words and prayers as my fingers fly across the keyboard and my brain is forced to recall every fact from every book on hacking that I've ever read. Random words fly through my brain, unhelpful words like _firewall_. DUH, there's a firewall. It's a computer system! _Ten-year-old kids with computers_ have firewalls!

 _Come on, Anton,_ I chide myself. _Pip and the rest of your family is counting on you._

My vision is growing black as I continue to tap furiously on the keys.

 _Come on, come on, come on, come on…_

 _YES!_

I press the enter key triumphantly. I have just enough time to see the words "access granted" flash across the screen before I tip sideways and pass out.

…

 **Pippa's POV**

I cough violently, praying I'm not coughing up blood, as I push myself to my hands and knees, pain coming from my whole body, but especially my chest and shoulder blades.

"You're not even an OWCA agent," Rodney leers. "You're just an untrained kid."

"Kids have one advantage," I croak, forcing myself to look into Rodney's eyes. "We're very resilient."

"And how has that helped you now?" taunts Rodney.

A smirk slowly spreads across my face. "It's allowed me to be a distraction."

Another alarm goes off, this one not as piercing. Rodney spins to face the security camera footage, yelling angrily as he sees that all the cages have opened and all the agents are free.

When I see that Rodney is distracted, I launch myself off the floor and kick Rodney as hard as I can in the head, knocking him out.

Then I collapse, blacking out.

…

 **Anton's POV**

When I wake, I feel myself lying in a hospital bed. Opening my bleary eyes, I look to my left and see Pippa lying in a bed next to me. "Pip…" I croak.

Pippa's head turns and she looks at me. Her face breaks into a smile. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I reply. "I just got a bruise. You?"

"Cracked ribs, concussion, lots of bruises," smiles Pippa. "But we did it."

"We did." I match her smile. "We finally proved ourselves."

"Yes you did," says a female voice.

We both sharply sit up, both of us wincing. Sitting at the foot of my bed is our mother, Priya. She's smiling at us. "Well done, both of you."

"Thank you," we chorus warily.

Mom chuckles. "There's no need to look so glum. We've all been very worried about you."

"You have?" I say incredulously.

"Of course. We love you both a lot. We just have a hard time showing it, that's all."

I fold my arms. That's a terrible apology for the horrible way we were treated. "That's no excuse!" I snap, taking Mom aback. "You should never treat us the way we were treated! There's nothing wrong with us."

"That's right," Pippa adds fiercely. "We didn't need to change! It's YOU who need to change! You can't keep ignoring us and treating us so badly! There's no call for it!"

Mom stares at us for a moment, before nodding slowly. "And I can't apologise enough. Seeing what you two managed to do today…it opened all of our eyes."

As if on cue, the medical bay's doors burst open, and all four of our older siblings run in, followed by Dad. Teddy and Hazel throw themselves on Pippa, while I get assaulted by Quinn and Hermes. We find ourselves being hugged to death while being apologised to over and over again.

It feels good.

 **Pippa's POV**

"I'm very proud of you two," Dad says, beaming.

Anton and I exchange a look of pure joy.

We finally feel loved.


End file.
